With some major changes in the off-season, the Abbotsford Heat are taking steps to prove they are indeed a professional team.
Most significant in the change see’s Ryan Walter step into the GM’s role for the club and anyone that knows Ryan, understands his sincerity and passion for the sport.
One of his mandates is community involvement along with a stronger sense of overall communication.
Another significant change is behind the bench seeing Jim Playfair move to Phoenix as an Assistant Coach, while they bring in Troy Ward for the Head Coaching position.
Troy was an Assistant last season with the Heat and started his coaching stint after graduating from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, leading them to a NAIA Championship.
This was followed-up by a short two year stint with Dubuque Fighting Saints.
From here his travels took him to Houston with the Aeros and eventually to Abbotsford.
While this is only the second home game of the season, they are coming off an impressive 4-3 win less than 48 hours earlier.
Friday’s home opener saw a crowd of 5,450 which not only gave them the win, but also saw them start the 2011-12 season with a 3-0 start.
While the home team is to have the advantage, several are on hand to welcome the BC players on Rockford.
Something quite unique to have three players (on one team) returns home to play in front of family and friends, not to mention having a day off in between games, which allowed them to visit and catch up on any news that might have happened the past while.
One player that caused a few problems most heat players was Kyle Beech from Kelowna, who did his best to get under the “skin” of all on-comers.
Shots after the second saw the Heat outshoot Rockford by a huge margin of 23-10.
Today’s game is the first of seven Sunday afternoon games for the Heat this season. This is so they can get away from back to back games on Friday and Saturday evenings.
GM Ryan Walter has set a part of the goal to have Sunday afternoon games as a Staple in the overall home schedule for the 2011-12 season.
The lone Sunday game last year saw the Toronto Marlies play an 11 am in a losing effort in front of 6,023 fans. The morning game was mostly to attract fans in the east.
Fan favourite and former Vancouver Giant player Lance Bouma was in the starting line-up and unlike last year, he looks at making his way back to the Flames in the not to distant future.
Lance played 16 games last season managing one assist, with 2 PIM’s, while his totals in Abbotsford saw him play 63 games, with 12 goals, 8 assists and 53 PIM’s.
His day’s with the Giants as somewhat different as he played 230 games, recording 39 goals,76 assists and a whopping 374 PIM’s in regular season play.
The Heat came out flying in the third seeing Ben Walter score to tie the game, which came after a missed penalty shot.
The Heat continue to press, with chance after chance; only to have Richards shut the door.
Delta’s Brandon Seagal put the Icehogs up 3-2 at 15:48 after taking a pass from Comox native Brett McLean giving them the lead and the win, spoiling a perfect record for the Heat.
Special Teams continue to be a strong area for the club as the team managed to erase all five penalties and have now killed eighteen of nineteen enemy power plays this season.
The power play finished with a goal on four opportunities
They pulled Irving with 53 seconds left, but it was a tad shy, letting Rockford pull off a 3-2 win.
The Heat next home game is Friday against the Milwaukee Admirals.
